Effective Customer Support: Why it is the Lifeblood of Your Online Business?

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Just because you have managed to start up your online business smoothly, you might think that it’s going to be a success immediately. The truth is, the real challenge begins only now! Down the lane, there will be a number of obstacles you need to face and overcome them to make better sales and gain profit.

Various eCommerce businesses that have been successful for many years worked endlessly to get to the top. And despite the number of online businesses that have been in the competition, only a few companies end up making things work and reach the top.

How do they make things work?

Several eCommerce brands have found their own method of attaining success. These include:

Efficient marketing tactics

Reaching out to people through social media platforms

Announcing events where they can share the latest product updates

Starting referral programs that boost loyalty

However, the one common factor they share, which has brought them profit and goodwill, is how effective their customer support services are.

Importance of Effective Customer Service in eCommerce Business

According to Daymond Johns Success Formula, which was created to help entrepreneurs set up successful businesses, success in online business can only be achieved by providing impeccable customer support. He mentions there are only two methods to improve business – either sell products at low prices or increase the number of sales. Either way, the two operations run in a way that get defined by customers’ will. This definitely explains why having a good relationship with customers is so important.

Many eCommerce business owners ensure to use live chat for customer service so that all questions are resolved instantly. Their aim to add live chat and other support tools is to make sure that no customer leaves without getting an answer to their question. In short, keeping customers delighted is their #1 priority.

Except, that’s not all there is to it, of course. Every eCommerce business owner is aware that now they have not one but many competitors in the market. And, not to forget - they all promise to provide a good experience to the customers.

Question is, how to be the different one in the market?

Simple - amplify support with the use of live chat for eCommerce business.

Let’s take a look at the benefits a live chat has to offer to the online business.

#Instant Support With Live Chat Software

There are many features of a live chat tool that can help businesses provide instant and delightful customer experience. Like in ProProfs Live Chat Software, you can route visitors to the correct department in no time.

With chat routing you can:

Prevent operator burnout due to uneven chat distribution

Free up your support teams’ bandwidth

Automatically connect users to dedicated account managers

Provide answers to all visitor questions

All these result in instant support that build a memorable experience for the visitors.

#Customer Convenience

Giving your customers and website visitors the ability to contact your business whenever they face a trouble is another way to build a delightful experience.

You may say that calls are the best way to provide convenient service to customers. They can call up your business anytime and get answers to their questions instantly.

True. But how many calls can one agent manage at the same time?

Phone calls are effective, no doubt. However, they do not give the liberty to manage multiple people at the same time. That’s where live chat is the game changer.

One support operator can work with 4-6 visitor chats with multiple chat window feature. Such a feature helps to:

Reduce response time

Reduce problem resolution time

Reduce visitor queue

While one customer gets answers to its questions, others aren’t left behind. In short, every customer gets answers at their convenience.

#Customer Loyalty

With faster resolution and convenient support service timings, customers feel assured that the brand will readily resolve their problems hassle-free.

Being the eCommerce business owner, you need to ensure that both the goals are met. As mentioned, live chat helps to achieve both the goals efficiently. This results in loyal customers. And that’s what your eCommerce business needs - loyal customers. That’s because loyal customers become brand ambassadors. Thus, spreading the good word for the business.

>> To read more live chat software benefits for customer service, click here!

How Good Customer Service Results in Prosperous eCommerce Business

No doubt that live chat has endless benefits and hence improves customer service process. But now we need to see how good customer service helps an eCommerce business prosper. Here, we’ve listed some of the ways in which excellent customer support provided through platforms like live chat software can amplify the prosperity of your eCommerce business.

#Regular Customers Over New Customers

Usually, most online businesses strive for ways to create better online marketing techniques. They believe that if they are able to create a captivating front for a product and talk about it online, it may catch the eyes of many new potential customers.

They aren’t wrong of course — it’s essential to advertise to have an upper hand in the online marketing industry. But what they fail to realize is that by focusing too much on new customer attraction strategies, they fail to meet the need of their existing customers.

If you think about it, most of the profit you gain through online business is mainly from your regular customers instead of new ones. If online businesses have one major concern, it’s the fact that their clients’ aren’t able to investigate the product physically. They can only rely on the pictures and your written description of your product or offers. Under such circumstances, since potential customers aren't sure whether your offers are authentic or not, they purchase just one small item to check whether it’s worth the money or not.

This is where your regular customers can be beneficial to your cause — they will be willing to buy more things from you as they already know the quality of your products and your delivery service. A mere 5% customer retention can lead up to 25% more profit as compared to the profit gained through new clients. And if you maintain an effective customer service relationship with them, it can improve the chances of them being regular buyers for a long period of time.

#Destroys Badmouthing Publicity

Maintaining your brand name is extremely important for your online business to spread its influence. Your clients are the one to depict the nature of your business — depending on how it is to their liking, they can spread that influence either negatively or positively.

To maintain a good status for your online business, it is necessary for your employees see that your client receives exceptional customer services when they are under your care. A satisfied customer equals good reviews, which is one of the building blocks towards positive publicity.

#Get to Know Your Business

Customer needs are the main priority for any business. Their opinions are valued and their feedback helps. Good terms with your clients lead to more profit and you know how your company can influence your buyers.

Ask them questions that benefit your business in the long run. Some of the questions you can ask — do your customers find your products useful? What new products would they like to see in the future? What other services would they like for a better shopping experience? etc. Keep in mind that every feedback is important — even the bad ones. They can be a great learning experience to avoid future mistakes and improve your online business.

#It Fits in the Budget

The great thing about providing a great customer service is that it isn’t costly. Without straining company investments, provide all customers an effective customer support service simply by teaching a few client handling techniques to your employees.

For example, Offer Factor mentions that customers can contact them between 9-5 from Monday to Friday.

Inc.com reported that almost 96% of American businesses went downhill within a decade of its initiation. The cause? Lack of efficient customer service. Customers no longer tolerate their problems being left unresolved or the lack of communication between the buyer and seller. Neglect in these tasks naturally leads to failure. This represents the amount of influence customer services can have to either keep your online business running or completely tarnishing it in a matter of years.

Since your employees initiate these services, it’s important that they are well equipped for the task. They should have a polite tone, calm behavior, and a proactive response when handling any of your customers’ complaints or queries.

Further, online businesses can even opt for online communities where people can post their questions and anyone can respond in return. This expands the influence of your company and also helps your customers choose your products according to those reviews. It’s a free service that only requires a good and helpful attitude. Several surveys indicate that online buyers feel customer service has been improving to effectively meet their shopping needs.

Build Trust

Building fundamental trust with your customers helps you in the long run. Because of the intense competition in the online business industry, there might be several companies who sell the same product/service or even better products than what you provide. In this case, upgrading your customer service skills is one way to get an upper hand.

The crucial thing here is to know that providing good customer service requires teamwork. From the one answering queries to the ones delivering the packages to the client's doorsteps, everyone should act as your representative and treat the customer with utmost sincerity. Developing a good relationship with your clients is a great way to ensure the trust of your customers.

Increases Revenue Through Existing Customers

We already mentioned how important retaining existing customers can be when it comes to earning more profit. That doesn’t mean we should neglect the need to attain new customers as well. It’s common knowledge that great marketing techniques are the most effective methods to attract new customers, but what if there were other ways to obtain them?

By maintaining good communication with your regular customers and being sincere, they can become a great source for bringing in more customers towards your way. You can ask them to leave a review on your webpage or spread the word of your business to anyone interested. If your customer support has been adequate enough to provide satisfaction to the customer, they will mention your business to other potential customers, thus increasing the revenue of your online business.

Once you gain enough number of customers, you must build a relationship with them to make sure they are satisfied with what you offer. Customers are the lifeline of a business and without them, businesses lead to failure.

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About the author

Megan Dennis

Megan Dennis is a passionate blogger who loves to write about latest SEO, SEM, and content related updates. She is a freelance writer and a part-time blogger for PNC Digital an Orlando based digital marketing agency. In her free time, she loves to play chess.